


Coping Skills Work

by dreamwriteremmy (ehryniewi)



Series: The Common House Tales [75]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, No Fandom, Original Work, Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-26
Updated: 2016-11-26
Packaged: 2018-09-02 07:38:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8658238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ehryniewi/pseuds/dreamwriteremmy
Summary: Carlos and Betony help Basimah with some coping skills work on Thanksgiving.





	

Carlos watches concerned as Basimah pushes food around on her plate at the dinner table for the Thanksgiving feast. "You okay?"

She shakes her head, and then quietly whispers, "I'm scared."

Carlos sighs, "Do you want a hug?"

She nods and he wraps his arms around her, "To be perfectly honest, I'm scared too. This world isn't quite like Night Vale. At least even when things were weird. Night Vale was weirdly predictable. This isn't so much. But we're here and for given values of safety, we're as safe as we can be and we have community. That counts for something. We have each other and we can hold hope for each other like candles. Cec says we'll survive. We've survived a lot already, but the truth is to be awake. Like in Night Vale, we need to pay attention to a degree. Buck some but not too much and take care of yourself. Has Betony shown you the self care point system?"

She shakes her head. He smiles. "Want to move to one of the quiet tables and I can show you on your wizpod?"

She nods. He pauses and looks at her plate. "Do you want something different to eat?"

She shrugs. "I don't want to disappoint people."

Carlos shakes his head. "Earl and Peeta are on kitchen duty. They're not offended by special requests. Look at what Little Kevin is eating. It's not traditional. He's really picky when he's that small inside."

"Is there anything with lamb?"

"Yeah. Katniss's stew. I'll go get you a bowl."

He returns with two bowls of the lamb stew and taps her. "Come follow me."

He leads her over to a booth with a yellow placard and sits down. "Come sit next to me; I don't bite."

She joins him and he opens up his wizpod and helps her turn it to the self-care point system, showing her how to flag things so tasks and activities for self-care are highlighted as "works" or "want to try". 

Betony sees him and waves as she grabs a plate of jello with stuff in it from the buffet. Betony looks at the two. "Are you both doing okay? I noticed you moved."

Carlos raises a hand and shakes it, "Así así." 

Betony nods, though she raises an eye at him using that phrase instead of his usual 'Más o menos' or just straight English. "If you need anything let me know."

"Will do. Basimah, this is Betony. She's really helpful if you need more help with self-care later or want to adjust some of the self-care system's barter rewards."

"Hi... Um..."

Betony glances at her, studying her, "Do you need something?"

Basimah looks down at her lap, "I... I think I need a fidget."

Carlos's eyes widen and Betony hums. "You're the new kid who likes the combination chewy tactile fidgets, right?"

Basimah nods.

Betony smiles, "Let me go get my bag. I have a new handheld set I bought for the comfort object closet that I think you'd like. I'll be right back."

She returns carrying a purse and pulls out a little handheld silicone elephant.

Basimah's fingers wrap around the heart and the fidget ends up in her mouth.

She removes it after a few minutes, "Thank you, Betony."

Betony grins, "Any time."

Carlos lifts his hand up to show off the silver with gold chain spinner ring Cecil gave him as a wedding band to Basimah. "This is one of my fidgets. I usually only use the tactile fidgets. They tend to ground me better." 

Basimah nods. "Everyone's different. I like having both options. Sometimes I like the chewing part; sometimes I like just feeling different textures."


End file.
